1 Kings 18 "Elijah and the Prophets of Baal" In Luke 9 Moses and Elijah appear on the mountain with Jesus at his transfiguration. Moses is the obvious one. He was the one whom God used to bring Israel out of Egypt. But why Elijah? Why not Abraham or David or Isaiah? Because Elijah is portrayed in Kings as a new Moses. He is the one who leads a new exodus out of idolatry. Just as Moses had triumphed over the gods of Egypt, so now Elijah triumphs over the gods of the Canaanites. Moses had faced the magicians of Egypt single-handedly, as now Elijah faces the prophets of Baal. 1 Kings 17-18 forms a coherent narrative around the drought and its resolution. It really starts at the end of 1 Kings 16 with the establishment of Baal worship in Israel, and ends in 1 Kings 18 with the destruction of the prophets of Baal. Though the story clearly is not over at the end of chapter 18, because Ahab and Jezebel, the instigators of Baal worship are still in power. But chapter 18 also has a coherent structure. Because chapter 18 begins with the promise of rain and ends with the fulfillment of that promise. Chapter 18 begins with the story of Jezebel killing the prophets of Yahweh, and ends with Israel slaughtering the prophets of Baal. It begins with Israel divided between Yahweh and Baal, but it ends with Israel following the LORD alone. There is a chiastic structure to this passage: a. Elijah told to meet Ahab and end drought, vv 1-2 b. Ahab and Obadiah, vv. 3-6 c. Elijah and Obadiah, vv 7-15 d. Elijah and Ahab, vv 16-19 e. Contest on Carmel, vv 20-40 d' Elijah and Ahab, vv 41-42a c' Elijah and servant, vv 42v-44 b' Elijah and Ahab, v 45 a' Elijah runs before Ahab to announce end to drought, v 46 This chiasm helps us understand what is happening in the passage. At the beginning of the passage we are introduced to Obadiah (whose name means "servant of Yahweh"). Obadiah is torn between the service of Yahweh and the service of Ahab. He is sent out to seek water for the horses and mules of Ahab, even as he is provided bread and water for the prophets of Yahweh. And he succeeds! Because at the end of our passage it is Elijah, whom Obadiah found in his search, who provides water for all the people as he prays down rain from heaven. At the beginning of our passage Obadiah (the servant of Yahweh) is the most faithful servant of Ahab. At the end of our passage Elijah will take Obadiah's place as Ahab's chief of staff, running before Ahab as the herald or messenger of the king. Ahab sends Obadiah in search of water. Obadiah succeeds beyond Ahab's wildest expectations! And Elijah brings water to the house of Ahab and all his people. 1. Obadiah, the Servant of Yahweh (18:1-16) Why is Obadiah serving Ahab? We usually think that Elijah is the model of how a Christian should be. Elijah courageously confronts apostasy and corrects it. And certainly Elijah provides a model of prophetic confrontation. But prophetic confrontation is not everyone's calling. Because if you are going to use this passage as a model of how we ought to live today, then you cannot ignore Obadiah! Obadiah was chief of staff to an idolatrous king. He was "over the household" which means it was his responsibility to make sure that everything got done in Ahab's house. And yet we are told that Obadiah feared Yahweh greatly. The adverb at the end of verse 3 prevents us from dismissing Obadiah as a compromiser. It's not just that Obadiah fears the LORD. After all there would have been many who would have said that they feared Yahweh, but hedged their bets by worshiping Baal as well! But Obadiah fears Yahweh greatly! How does a faithful Yahweh worshiper serve an idolatrous king? His job involves providing support to Baal worship! But Obadiah sees his position as an opportunity to weaken the hand of Baal secretly. Because he is a trusted official in Ahab's court, he knows the inner workings of the "system," and is able to use his knowledge in the service of Yahweh. So when Jezebel "cut off the prophets of the LORD" Obadiah took 100 and hid them in a cave, providing them with bread and water. Do not assume that everyone who appears to be in a compromising position is in fact a compromiser! But as the drought get worse in the land, Ahab becomes concerned for his horses and mules. He sends Obadiah to look for springs of water in order to save the horses and mules, that they might not be (literally) cut off (in Hebrew, cherith). Yes while Jezebel is cutting off the prophets of Yahweh, and Obadiah is providing water and bread for them; Ahab is afraid that his animals might get "cut off" (same word, cherith), and so he sends Obadiah to find water and grass for them. Ahab doesn't mind cutting off prophets, but he doesn't want his animals cut off! And incidentally, this word "cut off" cherith is the same word in 17:3-5, when Elijah was sent to the Brook Cherith the brook "cut off." This is the same verb used in scripture to talk about covenant-making. In Hebrew you would speak of "cutting a covenant." Jezebel is attempting to cut Israel off from their covenant with Yahweh, but Yahweh is a jealous God, and he will not allow this cutting to continue. Obadiah is torn between two allegiances. He is the servant of the King, but he also fears Yahweh greatly. And Elijah forces him to decide which allegiance matters more. Obadiah is a good example of where many of us live. In an ideal world there would be only one master, our Lord Jesus Christ. But we don't live in an ideal world. We live in a world where there are many master competing for our allegiance. And we are called to be Obadiahs servants of Yahweh who are faithful to our earthly masters insofar as our fear of the LORD will allow. We'll be looking more at this in our Economics and the Household of God series this fall. But Obadiah is looking for water. We saw last time that the whole passage is a satirical jab against Baal, the Canaanite storm god. Baal is supposed to bring water and fertility to the land, but now there has been a drought for three years. Obadiah is caught in the middle. Whom will he serve? Obadiah, the servant of Yahweh, is an example of Israel. Israel, the servant of the LORD, is limping between two opinions. Notice whom Obadiah calls lord (adonai) in the passage: Is it you, my lord Elijah? (v7) Then in verse 10 "my lord" is Ahab, as well as in verse 11, but then in verse 13 he again refers to Elijah as "my lord," before calling Ahab "my lord" again in verse 14. Obadiah is caught between two masters. It is a difficult position to be in. But also notice how Elijah responds: when Obadiah asks, Is it you, my lord Elijah? Elijah replies, It is I. (In Hebrew, "ani" literally, "I") This is reminiscent of how God speaks to Moses. We suggested last time that Elijah is (in a sense) a walking temple. Where Elijah goes, the presence of God goes. Why? Because the Spirit of God is upon him (as we will see!) And so where Elijah goes, there the Spirit of God goes. And so the return of Elijah to Israel is the return of God himself to Israel! (Incidentally, if you think about the NT doctrine of the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, this suggests that wherever we go the Spirit goes. If we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, then we are the coming of God wherever we go!) Well Elijah tells Obadiah to be his herald to live up to his name and be the Servant of Yahweh in announcing the coming of God in the presence of Elijah. After all, the name Elijah means "Yahweh is God," and so when Elijah says, tell Ahab, hinneh eliyahu, the sentence has a double meaning. It does mean, "behold, Elijah," but it also means, "behold, Yahweh is God." Obadiah is called to confess his faith in Yahweh before the idolatrous king whom he serves. And though he fears the king, he fears the LORD more, and so he does what he is bidden by Elijah. 2. Elijah's Challenge (18:17-19) When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, 'Is it you, you troubler of Israel?' And he answered, 'I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father's house, because you abandoned the commandments of Yahweh and followed the Baals. And Elijah issues a challenge: gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. And Ahab agrees. Why? Why doesn't Ahab just execute Elijah? Apparently Ahab does not want to alienate Yahweh entirely. The ancient world was very syncretistic, and to kill the prophet of a god would make him angry, so there is a general reluctance to kill prophets unless they really make upset you! Also, Ahab believes in Baal. And so the idea of a confrontation between the gods does not scare him. He is confident that Baal can hold his own against Yahweh. 3. Elijah and the Prophets of Baal (18:20-40) So Elijah stands before the people of Israel. And he issues his challenge to them: How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him. The word for "limp" is only used a few times in Hebrew. It is the word used of the angel of death "passing over" the houses of the Israelites in Egypt in Exodus 12:13, 23, 27. (Pasach) The noun form of the word, "pesach" is the name of the feast "Passover." By using it, Kings is connecting Elijah with the Passover. Yahweh had "limped" over Israel on the day when he brought them out of Egypt, but now Israel is limping between two different gods. And the prophets of Baal in verse 26 are limping around the altar of Baal. Some might wonder if "limp" is the right translation. After all, you could make "passing" work. (Passing back and forth between two opinions in verse 21, and passing back and forth around the altar in verse 26) But the image of limping is important to the passage. In Genesis 32, when Jacob was first called Israel, God touched his thigh and he limped. Now, the word for "limp" in Genesis 32 is not the same word as here, but verse 31 quotes Genesis 32:28, "Israel shall be your name." Kings is drawing together the image of Jacob limping in Genesis 32 with the language of the Passover. The call of Israel in Genesis 32, with the creation of Israel in Exodus 12. All of it comes together in the new Exodus led by the prophet Elijah. Just as Moses had challenged the gods of Egypt, so now Elijah challenges Baal. This sort of challenge was foreign to the Canaanite world. Why choose? Why not worship both? Baal doesn't care. He is only one god among the Canaanite pantheon. Only Yahweh is a jealous God. He alone demands that Israel choose. Ahab and the whole house of Omri are endorsing Canaanitism the idea that you should hedge your bets by worshiping many gods! Canaanitism is on the rise again! You hear many people today saying that there are many ways to god. The exclusive claims of the triune God are no more popular than they were in Elijah's day. They are also no less true! Elijah's challenge is designed to attack the very heart of Baal worship. Baal was the storm god. Even as the drought was a challenge to Baal's ability to provide rain, so now Elijah challenges Baal's ability to provide fire from heaven. And he let's them go first: I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. (Sure, there were 100 prophets in a cave somewhere, but prophets hiding in a cave don't count!) 450-1 doesn't sound like very good odds, but Elijah has been sent by the Word of the LORD. Throughout this passage we see the power of the Word of God. Elijah challenges Ahab to this encounter and he agrees. Elijah tells the prophets of Baal what to do and they do it. When they are worn out with their crying out, he mocks them: Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened! That's a great image: Maybe Baal had to go to the bathroom! Maybe he left on a journey! Maybe your god is asleep! And so they do everything they can think of to get them to answer: they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but their was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention. Baal's silence is deafening. Painfully so! as the blood of his prophets is spilled upon the ground. But then at evening, at the time of evening sacrifice (the offering of the oblation), at precisely the time when the priests in the temple in Jerusalem were offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah calls the people to "come near to me." Elijah, the walking temple, calls the people to draw near at the hour of the evening sacrifice, and he repairs the broken down altar of Yahweh with 12 stones, plainly representing the 12 tribes of Israel. The altar of the LORD had been torn down just as Israel had been torn down by Baal worship. Now Elijah is rebuilding Israel. Israel doesn't realize it yet. They are standing around, still limping between two opinions. They had not said a word in verse 21. They are still silent just like Ahab, just like Baal. But God is drawing them to himself in the person of Elijah. Elijah serves as priest at this altar which would seem to be a violation of God's command that only the priests in Jerusalem were to be offering sacrifices! But as we have seen, Elijah is a walking temple. In Elijah the presence of God himself has come to Israel. So he builds the altar and digs a trench around it. The trench is big enough to hold two seahs of seed (around 14 quarts or three and a half gallons). Then he arranges the wood, sacrifices the bull, and has them fill four jars with water and pour them over the sacrifice. And then has them do this three times. Twelve jars of water poured out over the sacrifice, so that it fills the trench. Twelve jars of water. Israel has not had any rain for 3 years. And Elijah asks for 12 jars of water to pour out over his sacrifice! He is pouring out precious water upon the sacrifice baptizing Israel in a flood. And then, at the time of the offering of the oblation (at the time of the evening sacrifice), Elijah the prophet came near and said (notice that the word "come near" has a clear reference to worship it is the same word used in verse 30 when Elijah told them to "come near" to him.) O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Normally the language is "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," but "Abraham, Isaac and Israel" had been used once before in Israel's history in Exodus 32:13, where Moses pleads with Yahweh after Israel's sin with the golden calf. Now Elijah uses the same language after Israel's sin, in moving from the golden calves of Jeroboam to the Baal worship of Ahab. Kings wants you to see Elijah as the new Moses who uses the language of Moses in his prayer. Then he prays, Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back. (v37) Notice that Elijah does not pray that God will turn their hearts back. Rather he prays that God will make this people know that he has turned their hearts back. Such is Elijah's confidence in the sovereign power of God! Then fire comes down from heaven. When fire came down from heaven in Solomon's day, it only consumed the sacrifices. But this fire consumes the burnt offering, the wood, and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water in the trench. Do you understand what this means? If fire from heaven consumes the sacrifice, then that means that God is pleased with the sacrifice. But if fire from heaven consumes the stones of the altar, that is not such a good sign! After all, the altar represents Israel! And the dust? Man was made from the dust of the ground. If fire from heaven is consuming the dust of the ground, that means God is not happy with man! And the water? Again, after three years of drought, for God to be drinking up 12 jars of water is not good news! Fire from heaven can be a blessing when it comes in response to the faithfulness of Moses or Solomon, but when fire from heaven consumes the entire altar, this is a sign of God's impending judgment upon Israel! And so the people respond by falling on their faces before Elijah just as Obadiah had done earlier: Yahweh, he is God! Yahweh, he is God! Like Obadiah, they had been serving two masters they had been limping between two opinions. Now they have but one opinion repeated twice! And they quickly obey when ordered to slaughter the prophets of Baal. The prophets of Baal are slaughtered at the brook Kishon. This would bring back memories of another slaughter of Canaanites, when Deborah led the Israelites against Sisera's armies, and God sent a sudden storm which flooded the plain and caused Sisera's chariots to become stuck in the mud. And the Israelites won a great battle that day. Kishon once again is the scene of the overthrow of Canaanitism. 4. Conclusion: Elijah and Ahab (18:41-46) Then, since Israel has returned to worship the LORD, Elijah calls for a covenant meal wherein Ahab will eat and drink before the LORD (v41). Israel has renewed the covenant, and so Ahab is forced to go along with the renewal of Yahweh-worship. But Elijah went up to the top of Mt Carmel, and he bowed himself before the LORD and prayed. Seven times he sent his servant to look to the sea. How long did it take for God to answer when Elijah called for fire from heaven? Not long. But now Elijah must continue in prayer seven times. God does not always answer immediately. As we saw this morning, God desires that we be persistent in prayer for his kingdom to come. James tells us that Elijah was a man like us and yet when he prayed, God sent rain on the earth, concluding that the fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah's prayer brought first fire and then rain from heaven. Why are our prayers so ineffectual? Because we are not nearly as passionately committed to the kingdom of God as Elijah! When Elijah sees the cloud he sends his servant to tell the king to get moving quickly! And while Ahab moves quickly, Elijah, with the hand of Yahweh upon him, runs before him to Jezreel. At the beginning of the passage Obadiah is Ahab's chief of staff. At the end, Elijah is the one who goes before the king. Elijah has single-handedly triumphed over Baal and Ahab, and leads Ahab to Jezreel. And several hundred years later Jesus will single-handedly triumph over the powers of sin, death, and the devil. And as he prepares for that task, as he prepares for "his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem," Moses and Elijah join him in glory on the mountain. In the OT, it doesn't get any more glorious than Moses and Elijah. But the voice came down from heaven saying, "this is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him."